Not gonna lie, one of the hardest parts of living on a tropical island is the sparse availability of ingredients that I used to be able to get my hands on 24 hours a day, 363 days a year. (Sometimes it’s impossible, even on the mainland, to get what you need on Christmas and Thanksgiving, right?) Surely you’re all welling up with tears at this tragedy, I know I am. 😉 Living in Rincon means that if I see seasonal produce, like asparagus, in the market I snatch it up as quickly as possible and don’t even wince at the fact that I’m going to be paying 3 times as much as I would in the states… and it’s a sad version of the produce. Seriously – at the end of December I paid $9 for a pound of brussels sprouts that were turning yellow… and they were worth every penny of it! Anyway, you can image my excitement when I came across a big bunch of asparagus recently. SCORE!

Back in the San Diego, I wouldn’t have appreciated the find so much and probably would have just thrown them in the oven or on the grill. Roasted and grilled asparagus are two of my all time fave ways to eat asparagus (and lets not kid ourselves, it’s effing simple). Here, I knew I wanted to do something far more exciting with my beloved produce. And since I needed to develop another recipe for Knorr, I knew without a moment of hesitation that there was only one product I wanted to use here: helloooooo hollandaise sauce! Everybody knows asparagus and hollandaise are a match made in heaven, so you could say I took the easy way out. At the end of the day the meal consisted of spicy, garlicky, sharp cheddar grits, with sauteed asparagus, onions & roasted red pepper topped with an over-easy egg and chipotle & lime kicked-up Knorr hollandaise sauce. My two friends who got a plate of it both told me that they wanted to marry me as they were eating it, so I think it turned out pretty well. The real question is, with all of these marriage offers, how is it that I’m still single?!? 😉

*I am a professional recipe developer being paid by Knorr as part of the Knorr 4 promotion. While Knorr is footing the bill, all content and opinions comes directly from my (sometimes offbeat and slightly cheesy) brain. 😉

Preheat a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add 1 tbsp of butter to the pan. Once melted, add garlic to the butter. Saute the garlic, stirring occasionally, for about 60-90 seconds until the aroma reaches your nose. Add the following 7 ingredients to the sauce (milk through oregano). Stir. Raise the heat to medium-high and bring liquid to a near-boil, stirring occasionally and scraping the bottom of the pot to prevent the milk from scalding. As soon as the liquid is approaching a boil, the milk will begin to froth up. While whisking constantly to prevent clumping, slowly pour the grits into the liquid. Reduce heat to low and simmer, whisking and scraping the bottom of the pot occasionally, until the liquid has been absorbed and the grits are thick, about 20-25 minutes. Add cheese and additional 2 tbsp of butter. Whisk until cheese has melted and butter has been completely incorporated. Taste then adjust seasoning as desired with more kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

In a saucepan, whisk together first 3 ingredients until the powder has been completely incorporated into the milk. Add butter to the pan & place over medium-high heat. Bring sauce to a boil, stirring frequently, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer until thickened, stirring frequently, about 1-2 minutes . Add lime juice. Stir to incorporate.

For plating:
Over Easy Fried Eggs

To plate:
Place a serving of cheese grits in the center of a plate. Top with a serving of the asparagus then a fried egg. Spoon hollandaise sauce over egg. Garnish with freshly cracked black pepper.

Servings: Approximately 5-6
Total cooking time: Approximately 40 minutes

As one of those people who proposed to you, back on the mainland, it’s Hadley Grass time, which is Asparagus Season here in Mass! So I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to attempt to re-live this fantastic dish! It won’t be as good as yours I’m sure, but damn, what a great dish!